Thanksgiving...

Here at Your Last Meal, we talk about the last meals of the famous, not so famous and the convicted. However for every last meal, there is a first meal. The theme this week is Thanksgiving.

There was a first Thanksgiving. Edward Winslow, who was a leader of the pilgrim colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts, gave this account of the first Thanksgiving.

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, Many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

The feast went on for 3 days and they had a guest of 90 indians from the local area.

They ate:

Vensison provided by the Indians

Duck

Goose

Turkey

Swan.

Face it. Without the Indians help, the colonies would have had a hard time adjusting to the new land they were living in. It is on this note, that those colonist were thankful for the help. The question I ask of the dear readers of Your Last Meal is, what are you thankful for?

Allen Ginsberg's Last Meal...

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American Beat poet.
He is best known for Howl a long poem about consumer society's negative human values.
With a classic opening line "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness", Howl became scandalous and was actually banned due to for obscenity. However the piece stood on it's own through 1st Amendment Rights.
Ginsberg hung out with the likes of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and John Clellon Holmes and other greats of the Beat generation. Thus gave birth to the Hippie generation, and hell it all went downhill from there. Hell, even the FBI put him on the watch list as a major security threat. A threat from what I'll never know. Perhaps the Man or the Establishment that beats us down everyday...you dig?

Ginsberg ran into some health issues during the late nineties. Really wasn't good news as the diagnosis was liver cancer. He died on April 5th, 1997. Before he died, he had one last meal (don't we all?)

It was:

Fish Chowder.

He never finished the meal, and the remnants of the meal are actually frozen in the interests of an Ginsberg museum sometime in the near future.

Snap your fingers for approval.

Robert E. Lee's Last Meal...

Robert E. Lee. General-in-chief to the Confederate armies
during the American Civil War. It was after the war that Lee settled down and tried to resume a normal life. He applied for post-war amnesty, but was never granted due to some bureaucratic mix ups in Washington D.C.

It turns out that Lee never got a pardon until President Gerald Ford granted him a pardon and U.S. Congress restored his citizenship in 1975. Quite a haul considering he'd been dead for 105 years. Lee wasn't a total bad guy, considering he was on the wrong side of the war in slavery. There were many debates through the years, that he never supported slavery, even though he himself owned about 10-12 slaves.

In his later years, he became president of Washington College in Virgina.
It was only in September of 1870, that Robert E. Lee fell ill. Unable to speak, all his doctors could do was put him to bed and hope for the best. It appeared he suffered a stroke.
The stroke damaged the frontal lobes of the brain, which made speech impossible, and made him unable to cough or expectorate. This would lead to his demise.

Loosing strength, a friend, from the Virgina Military Institute, sent out for a meal to restore Lee's health. This meal would turn out to be Lee's last.

It was:

Beef Tea.

Lee died two days later after being fed the meal. What had happened is the stroke put Lee in a position that he couldn't cough. The liquids from the Beef tea found their way into his lungs and pneumonia developed. With no ability to cough, Lee died from the effects of pneumonia .

However, don't let Beef tea detract you from trying it, especially if you or a loved one is sick. The tea does nourish really sick people back to health, as attested by many people who have tried it.

The recipe is below:

Beef Tea
1 lb Beef - prime lean beef.
1 c Water
1 t Salt

Put beef through a food grinder.
Place in top of double boiler and add the water. Simmer over a very low flame about 3-1/2 hours. Add salt. Strain and keep liquid in a cool place. If too strong, it may be diluted with some boiling water to strength desired.

Source: Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book - Fine Old Recipes, Culinary Arts Press, 1936.

George Washington's Last Meal With His Troops...

Aside from being the United States first president, George Washington was also the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), leading the Americans to complete victory over the British. He is the only General ever to achieve such a feat.

At the close of the Revolutionary War, Washington hosted a "Farewell" to his troops and to the French troops who helped the Continental Army. On November 2nd, 1783, at Rockingham House in Rocky Hill, New Jersey, General Washington gave his farewell address to the army. A formal dinner was given on December 4th, 1783 at Fraunces Tavern in New York.



The meal entailed:

Fish House Punch

Crab Claws w/Dill Mustard Sauce

Pate Maison Fraunces

Cheddar Biscuits

Sorrel Soup w/Sippets

Cold Poached Striped Bass w/Cucumber Sauce

White Wine

Mushroom Pastry Beefsteak and Kidney Pie

Roasted Lamb w/Oyster Forcemeat

Baked Smoked Country Ham

Madeira molded Wine Jelly

Yam and Chestnut Pippins

Pilau of Rice Ragoo

French Beans

Skillet Cranberries

Watermelon Pickles

Pear Honey

Sally Lunn Molded Butter Prints

Carrot Tea Cake

Tipsy Squire Tansy Pie

Whiskey Nut Balls

Chocolate Truffles

Apples

Hazelnuts

Pears

Almonds

Grapes

Tobacco

Coffee

Madeira Port

On December 23rd, 1783 General George Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief of the Army to the Congress. From there, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia before taking the role as the first president of the United States.

Gladiator's Last Meal...

In ancient Rome, the sport of the day was gladiators fighting in the arena. It was the decimal equivalent of football in today's sports world. Initially rich private individuals organized these, often to gain political favor with the public, but was then monopolized by the Emperor to keep the good citizens happy.

Most gladiators were slaves sold into fighting. They were also prisoners of war, and sentenced criminals. There was also the occasional volunteer, which was crazy, since your life expectancy in this profession was to die young. Only noted fighters that outlived the others were a celebrity fighter named Flamma, who died at the age of 30 after winning 21 of 34 fights. Another respected fighter, Felix, was one of the more long-lived, dying at age 45 after receiving Roman citizenship. Of course the life expectancy of a gladiator didn't just fall on the combatant's skill in the arena, but to the spectators themselves. Once a gladiator could fight no more, he would raise his left hand to the emperor or the highest public official present. At that point, the emperor looked to the crowd for their recommendation. If they showed thumbs down and shouted "Iugula!" (Cut his throat!), he was killed. If they showed thumbs up and shouted "Mitte!" (Release him!"), he was allowed to leave the arena and have his wounds treated. This was a plus since gladiators got the best medical treatment in the Roman Empire.

Now since gladiators were the equivalent of the sports stars we have today, they needed to stay healthy and energized. The meals they ate showed this. A typical last meal a gladiator would enjoy was:


Barley grains (thought to protect the arteries with fat and prevent bleeding to death)
Boiled beans
Oatmeal and, ash, believed to help fortify the body.


It turns out gladiators weren't these muscular fighting men, like Russell Crowe in the movie Gladiator, but in fact were fat vegetarians.
Gladiators ate so much barely that they were called hordearii or "barley men."
Quite a misconception on how movies, films, and even painting portray gladiators and how they actually lived.

Mohammad Atta's Last Meal

The biggest tragedy to date in the 21st century has been the
attack against the United States on September 11th, 2001. The poster boy for such attacks has been none other than Mohammad Atta. Atta was the ring leader in the suicide attacks against the World Trade Center in New York city. He was believed to have been the pilot that hijacked and took control of American Airlines flight 11 from Boston.
He along with 81 passengers flew into the North Tower at 8:47am.

Rollback to September 10th. Atta did meet with another Al Qaida operative the night before the attacks. They met at a Pizza Hut in South Portland, Maine. The meeting was short, but it did allow Atta to enjoy one last meal before final preparations were made.

Atta's last meal was of course

Pizza from Pizza Hut.

It's uncertain if he ordered pepperoni or just plain cheese pizza. We're not sure he went for the meat lovers special or perhaps he went with the veggie lover's delight. Regardless for such a waste of space on the mark of humanity, perhaps he just deserved the bland meager offerings that Liberace ate before he went silently into the night, instead of a popular dish enjoyed by millions of peace-loving Americans.

Bonnie And Clyde's Last Meal...

Most infamous gansters in history, Bonnie & Clyde. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow blazed their way into history during their crime spree from 1931 till their death's in 1934.

Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and killed May 23, 1934 at 9:10 am. They were shot by a posse of four Texas and two Louisiana officers who setup an elaborate ambush to nab the infamous duo. Actually the posse acted in haste since they clearly out numbered Bonnie and Clyde, and if they were interested in capture, they'd certainly would have brought a larger posse. However, the intent seemed to be to kill the two and with the help of the father of one of Clyde Barrow's gang, they formed a trap.

It was only when Clyde pulled his Ford V-8 over to the side of the road to chat with the father that the posse sprung into action. It was a slaughter and Bonnie and Clyde died under the hail of bullets that delivered both of them to their Maker.

However, as all things come to pass, Bonnie and Clyde did enjoy one last meal together. Before getting introduced to a high lead diet, Barrow and Parker had a small picnic. The meal they shared was:

SPAM sandwiches.

Wife: Have you got anything without spam?
Waitress: Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Wife: I don't want ANY spam!
Man: Why can't she have egg bacon spam and sausage?
Wife: THAT'S got spam in it!
Man: Hasn't got as much spam in it as spam egg sausage and spam, has it?
Vikings: Spam spam spam spam...

Liberace's Last Meal...

Now some say Chico Marx was a great pianist and entertainter.
Others will say Victor Borge was the greatest. Now, for me, hands down Liberace was the greatest, not only in piano but in flamboyance. Serious, the guy had some major costume changes between piano sets, but sit him down in front of 88 keys? Enchanting music from such a talented performer.

Not many people know that In 1953 Liberace was named by Ripley's Believe It Or Not as "The Fastest Piano Player In The World" for playing 6,000 notes in 2 minutes. Also, not many people know that he was the first perfomer to demand and receive US$50,000 per week to play in Las Vegas.

His career was music-centric. He had a few movie flops like when he starred in Sincerely Yours in 1955 with Dorothy Malone, playing 31 songs throuhout the entire film. He was also a villian in the Adam West Batman television show of the 1960's, playing Chandell.

Alas, he had some ups and downs in his career during the late 70's. His career finally was starting to pick up again in the 80's, but he ran into some health issues. People noticed the weight loss, and asked questions. The response was he was on the new "watermelon diet."
The truth of the matter, was he was dying of AIDS. He died on February 4, 1987 at his winter house in Palm Springs, California.

Liberace did enjoy one last meal before dying. According to his personal chef, Liberace went out with a bland meal of

Cream of Wheat cereal with half and half and brown sugar.

And to think he did it wall for his brother George...

Hasib Hussain's Last Meal...

Hasib Hussain was one of the bombers who contributed to the terror bombings against Britian's transportation systems. Hasib's claim to fame was blowing up No. 30 bus on July 7th killing
13 people.


Hasib had this last meal before suffling off to Allah and the 72 virgins reward prize:

Big Mac at McDonalds.

Let it be noted he did not get the Extra Value meal. Dumb move Hasib.
Dumb move.

Anne Frank's Last Meal In Hiding...

In the thick of WWII, Germany was in the process of executing Hitler's "Final Solution" for the Jews, Slavs, and non-Aryan peoples of the world. Call it the "Final Solution" sure, but genocide is genocide and all for hate's sake. For the Jews, it was expulsion into ghettos and slums. From there it boiled down to total indifference and exodus to concentration camps. While the war raged on, nobody outside of Germany knew what was going on in the European theatre. It was only after the war that we truly saw the evil that dwells in people hearts. The millions upon millions of innocent souls that were tortured and killed all because of some whack job named Adolph Hitler. The faces behind the barbed wire. Innocent children. Babies. People who have done nothing but live. Gassed. If there was one face that haunts me, it is that of Anne Frank.
Anne Frank was born June 12th, 1929. to German-Jewish parents. Anne was the Frank's 2nd daughter. Anne grew up in Frankfurt for the first 4 years of her life. It was only in 1933, when Hitler came into power and anti-semetic violence grew, that the Franks moved from Germany to Amsterdam. The war came, and the Nazi regime spread out and annexed other countries. The Netherlands fells, and the Frank family was unable to escape. It was June of 1942 that Anne received an autograph book for her thirteenth birthday. She never used the book for autographs, but used it to write a diary. She wrote about herself, her family and friends, her school life, boys she flirted with and the places she liked to visit in her neighborhood. While these early entries demonstrate that in many ways her life was that of a typical schoolgirl, she also refers to changes that had taken place since the German occupation. Some references are seemingly casual and not emphasized. However in some entries Anne provides detail of the oppression that was steadily increasing. She wrote about the Star Of David she and her family members had to wear on their clothes. The persecution and restrictions enacted by the German occupation. It was only in July of 1942, that Otto Frank (Anne's father), decided to move the family into hiding, after her eldest daughter Margo was called to report to a Jewish relocation camp. The Frank family along with the Pels family and a dentist Fritz Pfeffer spent 2 years in a 2 room/1 toilet attic area behind the Opekta offices where Otto Frank used to work.
It was only after a tip off that the they were hiding there in August of 1944, that the GrÃzne Polizei raided the apartment. Anne and her family were removed and taken to Concentration camps. It was in March of 1945, that a Typhus outbreak hit the camp. It killed Anne and her sister Margo. They died only a few weeks before the camp was liberated by Allied forces.

The last meal Anne, her family had while in hiding was:

Potato or some vegetable soup

After the war, the only surviving member of the family was Otto Frank. He went back to the hiding place he and his family hid for 2 long years. Only remnant of note that he found, was Anne's diary. The diary today provides us with a unique look at the mind of a maturing individual and examines what life was like under Nazi occupation.

In an excerpt from the diary, Anne mentioned that there was good in everyone. I'd like to believe that, but after seeing the atrocities that the Nazi's perpetrated on innocent people, I tend to think we sometimes forget how good we can be.